Vietnam advocates switching from attracting FDI to cooperating with foreign investors in the spirit of equality for mutual benefits and development, with priority given to hi-tech and eco-friendly projects, said President Nguyen Xuan Phuc at a high-level seminar with the US-APEC Business Alliance for Competitive SMEs in Bangkok on November 17.

President Phuc said with macro-economic stability and controlled inflation, Vietnam has been named among the world’s top 20 economies in terms of trade, with GDP growing by 8.83% in the first nine months of this year. International organisations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund predicted the growth at about 7.5-8.2% this year. The UN Conference on Trade and Development listed Vietnam among the top 20 FDI destinations globally.

He suggested US firms enhance connectivity, make it easier for Vietnamese enterprises to join their manufacturing supply chain, thus turning Vietnam into one of the value chain hubs in the region and the world.

Representatives from US firms and economic groups spoke highly of Vietnam’s economic growth in recent years, especially FDI attraction policy, COVID-19 response, and political and economic stability.

Michael Michalak, Senior Vice President and Regional Managing Director of the US-ASEAN Business Council and former US Ambassador to Vietnam, recalled that the US firms and investors always receive support from President Phuc in his different positions as well as relevant Vietnamese agencies.

Quint Simon, representative of Amazon Web Services, said he hopes Vietnam will offer more incentives to develop digital economic services such as cloud computing and cyber security. He also committed to partnering with Vietnam in digital transformation process.

Representatives from US firms and corporations vowed to continue expanding investment in Vietnam and bring new products and modern technology to the country in health care, population, digital transformation in finance-banking, smart agriculture, renewable energy, infrastructure building, hi-tech, information technology, and research and development.

The Vietnamese leader stressed that Vietnam will step up green growth, digital economy, sci-tech, innovation and deeply join the global investment structure, trade order and supply chain.

Vietnam will further open its economy, switch to quality and focused FDI cooperation; help domestic enterprises improve production capacity to join the supply chains of foreign-invested firms, he said, adding that the country will also strive to create a transparent and favourable business environment in line with new-generation free trade agreements and toward practices of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

These include maintaining socio-political and macroeconomic stability; removing economic bottlenecks related to legal institutions, infrastructure and human resources; develop supply chains, reduce transaction costs, especially logistics and administrative costs; and building an environment with stable policies, transparency and accountability.

He wished that with their pioneering roles, US firms will expand their operations in Vietnam to contribute to its socio-economic development in the near future./. VNA